Thursday, October 27, 2005

Congratulations, White Sox

In Wrigleyville, the bars are empty. Not literally, but not figuratively, either.

The parking lot across the street from Wrigley Field, which usually charges $35 for regular-season Cubs games, wants only 10 bucks tonight.

"When the Cubs were in the playoffs [in 2003], I was charging $150 a car to get in this lot," the attendant tells me as I drop Jackson on him and look for Hamilton as change.

"Do you know how much I'd get if the Cubs were playing tonight instead of the Sox?"

Don't drive to Wrigley - take the "L."

Inside the CUBBY BEAR, the world-famous bar that sits 10 yards away from Gate F, under the "Wrigley Field Home Of The Cubs" marquee, four doormen are on the clock (during regular-season games, it takes 15).

The place holds a capacity of 2,500; tonight, there are 80 inside.

Ouch.

The usual Wednesday Specials -- $2 well drinks, $10 buckets, $1 tacos and $1.50 Enchiladas are "un-specialed" for the night.

$2 well and $10 buckets?!

Booze it up!

The Cubby Bear is hell, BTW.

Not as bad as Gamekeepers, but still hell.

Reporters from the Chicago Tribune and ABC walk around unobstructed, and ask questions.

The Trib reporters were fishing for anti-Sox quotes.

Orders are low, noise is in short supply. As one patron says, "It's a damn shame that this city is so prejudiced that people in the Cubs' backyard can't come out and root for Chicago."

I agree.

Unfortunately, "our" fate is in the hands of the Tribune Company.

And say what you want about Jerry Reinsdorf ("He was so much shorter than the owner of the Astros!"), but dude has delivered 7 CHAMPIONSHIPS to the city of Chicago in the last 15 years.

Now --

The 2,000 US casualties in Iraq.

(Actually, it's up to 2,006 today, according to the "official" coalition website.)

NEW YORK CNN reported this morning that the U.S. death toll in Iraq had reached 2,000, and a little later The Associated Press confirmed this. AP said the 2,000th military fatality was an Army sergeant who was wounded by a roadside bomb north of Baghdad and died in Texas last weekend. He is Staff Sgt. George T. Alexander Jr., 34, of Killeen, Texas.

But the CHIEF SPOKESMAN for the American-led multinational force has CALLED ON THE MEDIA NOT TO CONSIDER the 2,000 number as some kind of MILESTONE.

U.S. Army Lt. Col. STEVE BOYLAN, director of the force's combined press center, wrote in an e-mail to reporters, "I ask that when you report on the events, take a moment to think about the effects on the families and those serving in Iraq.

The 2,000 service members killed in Iraq supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom is not a milestone. It is an ARTIFICIAL MARK on the wall set by individuals or groups with SPECIFIC AGENDAS and ULTERIOR MOTIVES."

Actually, Lt. Col. it's a mark set by people who'd like to point out that "combat operations" have not "ended" and that we've yet to be "greeted as liberators."

"Antiwar protesters plan demonstrations, while the Bush administration asks for patience. One senator calls the number 'an ARTIFICIAL LANDMARK.'"

Obviously, the senator read the same MEMO as Lt. Col. Boylan:

Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.) called the moment "another tragic milestone in this costly war, in which too much blood has been spilled already."

But SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R-Texas) said the figure was "an ARTIFICIAL LANDMARK. Of course we grieve over each one of those losses, but it's an artificial number that SOME ARE USING TO TRY TO UNDERMINE SUPPORT for our effort there. These are people without any constructive alternative; is cutting and running what we're supposed to do?"

Again, Lt. Col. Boylan: "The 2,000 service members killed in Iraq supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom is not a milestone. It is an ARTIFICIAL MARK on the wall set by individuals or groups with SPECIFIC AGENDAS and ULTERIOR MOTIVES."

And Sen. Cornyn: The figure is "an ARTIFICIAL LANDMARK. Of course we grieve over each one of those losses, but it's an artificial number that SOME ARE USING TO TRY TO UNDERMINE SUPPORT for our effort there."

If Mr. Fitzgerald decides against an indictment on the core issue of the unmasking of a covert agent, he may still seek charges involving the mishandling of classified information, the making of false statements or obstruction of justice.

There are signs that REPUBLICANS PLAN A STRATEGY OF PLAYING DOWN ANY INDICTMENTS AS TRIVIAL and possibly political, though Mr. Fitzgerald has been widely described as a respected career prosecutor above from political machinations.

Listen for it: They've already started.

From the Daily Kos, an excerpt of David Brooks' appearance on This Week:

David Brooks: I think this is actually a story that is a NOT A POLITICALLY IMPORTANT STORY.

I've talked to a lot of House members this week about what people are asking about. It's never this.

The amount of American people who have heard about Karl Rove is small, let alone Scooter Libby. So this is going to be an important story for the Bush White House, `cause Rove...

George Stephanopoulos: So you're saying it's not important, even if Fitzgerald does indict?

HANNITY: Maryanne Marsh, let's get to some of the specifics. If The New York Times is right, and this is about a lack of a recollection of a conversation with Matt Cooper and Karl Rove, for example, from two and a half years prior, does that not seem legitimate to you?